Editing Christian Science (section)

{{Short description|American new religious movement}}
{{Distinguish|text=[[Christianity and science]], [[Christians in Science]], [[List of Christians in science and technology|Christians in science and technology]], or [[Scientology]]}}
{{Good article}}

{{Infobox Christian denomination
| name       = Christian Science
| image       = [[File:The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, aerial shot (1), 19 July 2011.jpg|250px|alt=Aerial photograph of a triangular lot between roads and their sidewalks. The lot contains a small, Romanesque church filling the front point to the sidewalks, connected to a much larger and impressive domed, Neoclassical building behind it, filling the lot to the sidewalks to the left and right.]]
| caption     = [[The First Church of Christ, Scientist]] at the [[Christian Science Center]] in [[Boston]] with the original Mother Church (1894) in the foreground and the Mother Church Extension (1906) behind it.<ref>[http://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/Christian%20Science%20Center%20Complex%20Study%20Report,%20as%20amended_tcm3-17697.pdf "Christian Science Center Complex"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923204327/http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/Christian%20Science%20Center%20Complex%20Study%20Report%2C%20as%20amended_tcm3-17697.pdf |date=2015-09-23 }}, Boston Landmarks Commission, Environment Department, City of Boston, January 25, 2011 (hereafter Boston Landmarks Commission 2011), pp.&nbsp;6–12.</ref>
| founder      = [[Mary Baker Eddy]] (1821–1910)
|theology = [https://www.christianscience.com/what-is-christian-science/beliefs-and-teachings "Basic teachings"], Church of Christ, Scientist
| scripture       = ''[[Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures]]'' by Mary Baker Eddy and the [[Bible]]
| members       = Estimated 106,000 in the United States in 1990<ref name=Stark191>{{cite journal|last=Stark|first=Rodney|author-link=Rodney Stark|title=The Rise and Fall of Christian Science|journal=Journal of Contemporary Religion|volume=13|issue=2|pages=(189–214), 191|year=1998|doi=10.1080/13537909808580830}}</ref> and under 50,000 in 2009;<ref name=Prothero2017p165/> according to the church, 400,000 worldwide in 2008.{{refn|group=n|PBS, August 2008: "The church estimates it has about 400,000 members worldwide, but independent studies put membership at around 100,000."<ref>Valente, Judy (August 1, 2008). [https://web.archive.org/web/20081110004403/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1148/feature.html "Christian Science Healing"]. PBS.</ref>}}
| website    = [http://christianscience.com/ christianscience.com]
}}

{{Christian Science sidebar}}
{{Christianity|expanded=hide}}

'''Christian Science''' is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the [[Church of Christ, Scientist]]. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known as the Christian Science church. It was founded in 1879 in [[New England]] by [[Mary Baker Eddy]], who wrote the 1875 book ''[[Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures]]'', which outlined the theology of Christian Science. The book was originally called ''Science and Health''; the subtitle ''with a Key to the Scriptures'' was added in 1883 and later amended to ''with Key to the Scriptures''.<ref name="Mary Baker Eddy Library">{{cite news |title=140th Anniversary of Science and Health |url=https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/the-140th-anniversary-of-science-and-health/ |publisher=Mary Baker Eddy Library |date=July 7, 2015}}</ref>

The book became Christian Science's central text, along with the [[Bible]], and by 2001 had sold over nine million copies.<ref name=Gutjahr2001p348>{{cite journal |last1=Gutjahr |first1=Paul C. |title=Sacred Texts in the United States |journal=Book History |date=2001 |volume=4 |pages=(335–370) 348|jstor=30227336 |doi=10.1353/bh.2001.0008|s2cid=162339753 }}</ref>

Eddy and 26 followers were granted a charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1879 to found the "Church of Christ (Scientist)"; the church would be reorganized under the name "Church of Christ, Scientist" in 1892.<ref>{{cite web |title=Women and the Law |url=https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/what-is-the-background-on-the-name-church-of-christ-scientist/ |website=The Mary Baker Eddy Library |date=22 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118194230/https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/what-is-the-background-on-the-name-church-of-christ-scientist/ |archive-date=18 January 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> ''The Mother Church'', [[The First Church of Christ, Scientist]], was built in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1894.<ref>For the charter, [[Mary Baker Eddy|Eddy, Mary Baker]] (1908) [1895]. ''Manual of the Mother Church'', 89th edition. Boston: The First Church of Christ, Scientist. pp. 17–18.</ref> Known as the "thinker's religion", Christian Science became the fastest growing religion in the United States, with nearly 270,000 members by 1936 — a figure [[History of the Christian Science movement#Decline|which had declined]] to just over 100,000 by 1990{{sfn|Stark|1998|pp=190–191}} and reportedly to under 50,000 by 2009.<ref name=Prothero2017p165>{{cite book |last1=Prothero |first1=Donald |author-link=Donald Prothero |last2=Callahan |first2=Timothy D. |title=UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens: What Science Says |date=2017 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington | page=165}}</ref> The church is known for its newspaper, ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]''<!--The definite article in newspaper titles is omitted, per the Chicago Manual of Style, 8.180-->, which won seven [[Pulitzer Prize]]s between 1950 and 2002, and for [[Christian Science Reading Room|its public Reading Rooms]] around the world.{{refn|group=n|In April 2010, the ''Christian Science Journal'' listed 1,068 Reading Rooms in the United States and 489 elsewhere.<ref>{{harvnb|Fuller|2011|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=tu68O9MG0fQC&pg=PA175 175]}}</ref>}}

Christian Science's religious tenets differ considerably from many other [[Christian denomination]]s, including key concepts such as the [[Trinity]], the divinity of [[Jesus]], [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]], the [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]], and the [[Eucharist]].{{sfn|Fraser|1999|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tchcDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+yawning+gulf+between+christian+scientists%22&pg=PT20 131-132]}}{{sfn|Wilson|1961|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA124 124]}} Eddy, for her part, described Christian Science as a return to "primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing".<ref name=lostelement>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Bryan|author-link=Bryan R. Wilson|title=Sects and Society: A Sociological Study of the Elim Tabernacle, Christian Science, and Christadelphians|date=1961|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA125 125]}}{{pb}}
Eddy, ''Manual of the Mother Church'', p.&nbsp;[https://archive.org/stream/manualofmotherch00eddy#page/17/mode/1up 17].</ref> Adherents subscribe to a radical form of philosophical [[idealism]], believing that reality is purely spiritual and the material world an illusion.<ref>{{harvnb|Wilson|1961|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA127 127]}}; [[Nicholas Rescher|Rescher, Nicholas]] (2009) [1996]. "Idealism", in Jaegwon Kim, Ernest Sosa (eds.). ''A Companion to Metaphysics''. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. p.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=i7PG-Vk824UC&pg=PA318 318] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115454/https://books.google.com/books?id=i7PG-Vk824UC&pg=PA318 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref> This includes the view that disease is a mental error rather than physical disorder, and that the sick should be treated not by medicine but by a form of prayer that seeks to correct the beliefs responsible for the illusion of ill health.{{sfn|Wilson|1961|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC&pg=PA125 125]}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Battin |first1=Margaret P. |author-link=Margaret Battin |editor1-last=DesAutels |editor1-first=Peggy |editor2-last=Battin |editor2-first=Margaret P. |editor3-last=May |editor3-first=Larry |title=Praying for a Cure: When Medical and Religious Practices Conflict |date=1999 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |location=Lanham, MD, and Oxford |isbn=0-8476-9262-0 |chapter= High-Risk Religion: Christian Science and the Violation of Informed Consent |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_XqLtMpuIwkC&pg=PA11 11]}}</ref>

The church does not require that Christian Scientists avoid medical care—many adherents use [[dentists]], [[optometrists]], [[obstetricians]], physicians for broken bones, and [[vaccination]] when required by law—but maintains that Christian Science prayer is most effective when not combined with medicine.<ref name=combined>Schoepflin, Rennie B. (2003). ''Christian Science on Trial: Religious Healing in America''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.&nbsp;192–193.{{pb}}
Trammell, Mary M., chair, Christian Science board of directors (March 26, 2010). [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/opinion/l27christian.html "Letter; What the Christian Science Church Teaches"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807120034/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/opinion/l27christian.html |date=2022-08-07 }}. ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>Regarding vaccines specifically, see:
*Christine Pae (September 1, 2021). [https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/vaccine/who-qualifies-for-a-religious-covid-19-exemption-washington/281-65431353-6096-4d09-899c-3c2d6f573447 "Here's who qualifies for a religious exemption to Washington's COVID-19 vaccine mandate"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928014357/https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/vaccine/who-qualifies-for-a-religious-covid-19-exemption-washington/281-65431353-6096-4d09-899c-3c2d6f573447 |date=2021-09-28 }}. ''KING 5''.
*Samantha Maiden (April 18, 2015). [https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/no-jab-no-pay-reforms-religious-exemptions-for-vaccination-dumped/news-story/5941541520ab64a115704f58633a1d68 "No Jab, No Pay reforms: Religious exemptions for vaccination dumped"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928014909/https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/no-jab-no-pay-reforms-religious-exemptions-for-vaccination-dumped/news-story/5941541520ab64a115704f58633a1d68 |date=2021-09-28 }}. ''Daily Telegraph'' (Australia).</ref> The reliance on prayer and avoidance of medical treatment has been blamed for the deaths of adherents and their children. Between the 1880s and 1990s, several parents and others were prosecuted for, and in a few cases convicted of, [[manslaughter]] or [[neglect]].<ref>Schoepflin 2003, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FfKpE_1Q79EC&pg=PA212 212–216] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115455/https://books.google.com/books?id=FfKpE_1Q79EC&pg=PA212 |date=2022-11-01 }}</ref><ref>Peters, Shawn Francis (2007). ''When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law''. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=vDUElGmA3vkC&pg=PA91 91], 109–130. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101115455/https://books.google.com/books?id=vDUElGmA3vkC&pg=PA91 |date=2022-11-01 }}.</ref><ref>Massachusetts Citizens for Children (MassKids), 2023, “Cases of Childhood Deaths Due to Parental Religious Objection to Necessary Medical Care”. [https://www.masskids.org/index.php/religious-medical-neglect/cases-of-child-deaths]{{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20241202203953/https://www.masskids.org/index.php/religious-medical-neglect/cases-of-child-deaths |date=2024-12-02}}</ref>